Darkness and Truth
by Sanluris
Summary: Fifteen-year-old Gale has had strange visions ever since he was a child, and his parents had no way to explain it. Because of Gale's abilities he is distant from others, but has two best friends who stand by him through everything. One day a chance encounter sets Gale on the path to finding the truth in order to stop the planet's paralysis. Pre-Explorers of Darkness and Time
1. Secret

**I've wanted to write a ****Pokémon**** Mystery Dungeon story for a long time, and finally, I've decided to do so. When I finished Explorers of Time, I began to wonder how Grovyle and the main character met, how they decided to go back in time, how they found Celebi in the first place and how they got on Dusknoir and Dialga's bad side. It probably had some to do with the Dimensional Scream, but still, I was curious about the history of Grovyle and his human partner. So, I decided to start writing this and see where I got. I don't know if I'll stop my story when Grovyle and his partner are attacked by Dusknoir while attempting to go back in time, since most of you know how everything goes from then on, but I'll see. It'll depend on how well I think I'm doing. I don't own ****Pokémon or the Mystery Dungeon games. I just love them so I had to write about it. :)  
I haven't played Pokémon Black or White, so I just looked up map information and stuff, and made up a bit of the geography, so it might be wrong; I hope that doesn't bother anyone too much. Oh, and a couple of the human characters have names of characters from the games, but they aren't the same people. I just made up characters and picked names of my friends.**

* * *

**Visions**

I opened my eyes a bit and glanced at the clock on my beside table, but didn't see anything except a pale blue wall, at a lower level than I was used to. Blinking a couple times, I noticed that I was lying on the floor with the bedsheets tangled around me. I realized sleepily that I must have rolled out of bed sometime during the night, something I had a tendency to do from time to time. Glancing up, I saw that I'd rolled off the left side of my bed. I couldn't stay still sometimes and that carried over into my sleep. Yawning loudly, I rolled over onto my left side and curled up, too lazy to stand and get back into bed. Sleeping on the floor didn't bother me. I'd been dozing for a minute when a rumbling noise reached my ears. I decided that it was a plane flying overhead and ignored it, but suddenly I felt tremors that sent tickling vibrations across my skin. The vibrations increased and I slowly sat up, wondering what was going on. My mind still wasn't coherent enough to realize that something was wrong. But as startling as a flash of adrenaline, an almost-painful flash of déjà vu hit me and my eyes widened in alarm. Bolting upright, I leapt up and sprang over my twin bed and approached my computer desk, yanking the chair out of the way so I could duck under it. Pressing myself against the wall, I ducked my head and gripped the back of my neck with both hands. Heart still beating heavily, I counted the seconds and stopped when I hit sixty. The tremors gradually began to die down and a few moments later they finally stopped. Shaking a little in alarm, despite having seen this situation countless times before, I slowly raised my head and looked around, and saw that it could have been worse.

Most of my books had been jostled free from their bookshelves and lay scattered around the wooden floor. The first bookshelf was to the left of my closet and the other was near my bedside table, but if they ever fell during a quake they had been positioned so that they wouldn't land on anything. The books were all paperback, so if they fell on me then it wouldn't be that big of a deal. I had video games, but I kept them—along with a few hand-held consoles—in a box under my bed. I'd been too busy lately to play them. There was just a week left until school started up again, and my parents were pressuring me to get ready for the new year. I complied, at least on the surface, so they wouldn't keep bothering me about it. They normally left me alone when they thought I was studying, but once I got tired of schoolwork I would climb onto the window ledge, push the window open and jump the few feet to the ground below...making sure my parents weren't outside. After that I'd be in the backyard. Sometimes I would climb out the window so I could leave the house without anyone noticing, but for the most part, it was just more fun than using the front door. That window, the only one in my room, was just to the left of the desk. It had pretty sturdy glass, and it would take a lot for the window to break, according to my dad.

When it seemed that the earthquake wouldn't cause any aftershocks, I crawled out from beneath the desk and stood. I noted with satisfaction that the bookshelves hadn't fallen over, since they'd been secured to the wall and floor. Most if not all of the books had tumbled from the shelves, though. It was good that I didn't like to move my furniture around because the bolts made that impossible. My family lived in an earthquake-prone region, so my father and I had taken the necessary steps to earthquake-proof our house quite a while ago. We'd moved here about five years previous, and I'd been ten years old then. I'd had too much energy than I knew what to do with, so my father had decided to let me help him work instead of letting me run amok somewhere else. I hadn't been allowed to use any tools, though; I had just gotten anything my father had needed from his toolbox.

A few months ago I'd just turned fifteen, so it had been a while since my family had moved to Nacrene City. I still remembered that a while after we'd settled in was when my visions had started...or that was the earliest one I could remember, at least. I'd been watching my dad bolting my desk to the wall, and he'd needed another one, so I'd rifled through his toolbox, moving the hammer out of the way as I searched. I had been offering him a bolt when an unexpected dizzy spell hit me. A jumble of pictures filled my mind, and I don't remember what I saw, but according to my father I'd said something about him hurting his hand. A couple days later, he'd injured his hand while nailing a new shelf together in the kitchen. I hadn't been able to tell him clearly what had happened during the dizzy spell, but even if I could have, he and my mother probably would have passed it off as the imagination of a hyperactive boy. The visions hadn't stopped, though, and eventually my parents had taken them, and me, seriously.

Well, seriously enough to decide that I needed serious help...they believed my visions were a result of something that had gone wrong with my mind, even though I was normal in every way except for the visions. My parents had never told me that I was messed up to my face, but I'd overheard them one day and had felt uneasy around them since then. Whenever I had a vision, they thought I was getting worse and would be over-anxious around me, and then take me to the doctor whether I'd wanted to go or not. So I had gradually learned not to tell them about the visions I got unless they were serious...though even then...nothing good came of mentioning what I'd seen. My parents still took me right to the doctor, no matter how much I tried to convince them that I wasn't sick. Once I'd run away to my friend Brandon's house, using my window as the escape route, but later I realized I hadn't accomplished anything. My parents had eventually called Brandon's house looking for me, and my short run-away trip had ended. I thought that I would be taken home, but my parents had taken me to the doctor anyway, and in addition to the doctor visits, I'd had counseling appointments for a couple months. The only thing I regretted about that time was that I'd gotten Brandon and his family involved.

"Gale!" I jumped and glanced towards my bedroom door, which my mother had suddenly flung open. Her vivid brown eyes—the color of my own—were wide with fear, and her medium-length brown hair was tousled. She was still in her long gray cotton nightgown. It seemed that the tremors had been her alarm clock, too. She approached me and drew me close in a relieved embrace. "Are you alright? Did you get hurt?" I shook my head and gave a muffled reply.

"I'm fine, mom." Struggling a little, I tried to pull back. "What about you? And dad?" Finally she released me and drew back, wringing her hands.

"I just called him. He's fine. The museum wasn't that damaged, and he says that the town made it through alright, too. A few people were hurt, but not badly."

"That's good," I sighed, then thought of my friends. "I'm going to call my friends."

"Alright," my mother said, wringing her hands, "but after that, could you get dressed and help me clean up?"

"Sure," I replied with a nod, and turned to my desk to pick up the black cordless phone, then paused. The phone wasn't on the desk. It took me a couple seconds to locate it; the phone had fallen off its charger and onto the floor stand during the earthquake. First I called Sam, and then Brandon, and learned that their homes hadn't been damaged at all. There were just lots of things to clean up, items that had fallen during the tremors, and they were all fine. With a relieved sigh, I hung up after telling Brandon goodbye, and that we should hang out sometime before school started. A thought struck me suddenly as I recalled the recent tremors. I bit my lip in consternation after I slowly set the phone back on its charger.

The day I'd had a vision about the future—now past—earthquake, Sam had been heading home from the store. I'd been heading home at the same time but had not noticed her as I had stayed lost in thought. I would have walked right past Sam without a word had she not called out to me. Afterward we'd walked back towards our houses together. Sam was tall, a bit taller than me, something she liked pointing out whenever she got the chance. Her hair was brown and she usually kept it in a high ponytail. Her eyes were different than most of the people that lived in Nacrene City; most people, including me, had brown eyes. Sam's eyes were a bright blue and always had a mischievous but friendly spark in them. Her favorite clothes to wear were a knee-length skirt and a short sleeve shirt, usually orange, as that was her favorite color. In the winter she wore longer skirts, and sometimes she thick black leggings or jeans underneath when it got too cold even for her, but rarely wore blue jeans or pants just by themselves. Sam was creative, and didn't mind learning about or making up new styles that might not be popular. And maybe because of her creativity and kindness, she didn't mind being around someone even if they were a little off...which was likely why she'd become my first friend. Sam lived just a little farther down the road than me and we often hung out together, along with Brandon, who I'd just been visiting before running into her. Brandon and I had been playing one of his new video games together, unbeknownst to our parents; they thought we were studying, which we had found pretty funny. When I didn't play my video games, Brandon and I would play games from his collection together. On the phone just now, he'd explained that that his parents had been telling him to start studying in preparation for the new term too.

Brandon could get along with anyone as long as they let him do things his own way, and as long as they got along with his friends. He had short red hair, and he would have had the same brown eyes as most everyone in Nacrene City had it not been for his pale green left eye. He'd explained to me after I noticed the difference that almost everyone in his family had heterochromia. We'd met a couple years ago when we'd both been twelve, and had become quick friends who liked a lot of the same things. We both liked video games, and we usually wore the same style of clothes—mostly T-shirts and shorts in mid-spring and summer, then jackets, long-sleeved shirts and blue jeans in fall, winter and early spring—which caused Sam to say we were weird and that we just liked to copy-Meowth each other, while we'd tell her jokingly that she was weird for the things she wore. She'd then smirk and haughtily respond that we wouldn't know fashion if it kicked us in the face.

After meeting up that day, Sam and I had been talking...well, Sam had been talking, and I'd been listening to her end-of-summer plans, when without warning something tripped me. In the evening, Diglett liked to come out and often got underfoot when they emerged from the ground, and I had been too busy listening to Sam to avoid stumbling this time. So I found myself spitting dirt while I pushed myself onto my hands and knees. When I stood, the Diglett hurriedly burrowed back into the ground; a raised trail of earth moved away into the distance as the Pokémon fled.

I'd been glaring at Sam while she held her stomach and laughed, and right then the dizzy spell struck and made me grip my head with both hands as I tried to stay upright and focus on the vision all at once. I saw myself in my room, ducking under my desk as the furniture around me rattled but didn't fall over, and saw my books spilling from the shelves like falling rocks. Then that scene had changed abruptly: A floating white-and-blue tower that stretched to the heavens had suddenly started crumbling, sending huge pieces of stone whistling to the ground while a red vortex swirled high above it, but I still wasn't sure what that had been about. I had never seen any building like that, though I'd overheard a rumor from one of my high school classmates that there was a huge tower like that somewhere in the country. It was probably just one of the "Seven Wonders"—rumors that showed up in probably all the high schools these days—so I hadn't cared about it much. But all of the visions I'd seen had been true...so maybe there was a tower like that out there somewhere.

After the dizzy spell and vision ended, I'd explained it to Sam, and she steadied me as we walked the last stretch to my house. She was helpful as always when I had visions, unlike my parents who didn't know how to help me aside from periodically taking me to the doctor to get tests or new medication. I was frustrated with how my parents acted, but couldn't bring myself to blame them or get too angry. I tried to tell myself that they weren't acting out of order, since I knew how strange I must seem. It wasn't their fault that I'd been born a little off. I was their son, and they did care about me, but I was always going to be strange. It was just how things had been. The doctors had never been able to explain why I had the visions. The medicine I took made the visions a little easier to take—they'd used to give me bad headaches—but it had never made the visions stop.

What was important, anyway, was the way my friends still stuck by me even though I obviously wasn't normal. According to them, no one was normal, no matter how much they pretended. They often admitted to being strange themselves, or would jokingly accuse the other of being strange.

"Gale?" I shook my head to clear the memories away as my mother stepped back into my room. She was holding a set of clear blue plastic salt-and-pepper shakers in her hands.

"Just thinking. I'll come out in a couple minutes," I told her absently, then took a breath and decided to bring up the vision after all, despite knowing that it wasn't a good idea. Somehow I had to make her believe that the visions weren't a sign that something was wrong with me. "Mom," I started bracingly, "I know you don't like hearing about this, but do you remember the vision I had a few days ago? About the earthquake?" Her face darkened and she turned away.

"I remember," she said icily, turning abruptly, "but it was a hallucination. Just some strange daydream that you had." She didn't look at me as she strode out of my room. "Clean your room, then come and help me clean up the kitchen." I gave a quiet sigh; this was how she reacted to all of the visions I'd had, but now she had much less patience in dealing with them compared to a couple years ago.

"But...nevermind," I told her dully, then closed my door quietly. With a long sigh I began clearing up my books. After I'd gotten them all back in order on the two bookcases, I changed out of my pajamas—consisting of a gray shirt and black boxers—tossed them onto my bed, then crossed to the closet across from my bed. Pulling open the doors, I stared at the contents and eventually found a red shirt I liked and a pair of khaki pants draped over a coat hanger. My closet was a mess, cluttered with my backpack, some dirty clothes that hadn't fit in the full laundry basket, a couple textbooks and a couple pairs of shoes, but I never managed to make myself clean it up. I grabbed my favorite pair of shoes, blue and white, and set them down at the foot of my bed, then shut the closet. _I'll clean it up someday. _I yawned as I headed towards the bathroom and went through my morning routine slowly, not wanting to face my mother after bringing the vision up. She still didn't believe me, and it was likely she was now off scheduling a doctor's appointment for me. While I brushed my teeth I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and shook my head. I usually looked bad after the visions, like I hadn't slept in days, but today I looked even more disheveled. I rubbed the circles under my eyes and shrugged, then quickly brushed my hair and left the bathroom, almost forgetting to turn off the light. After that I moved reluctantly towards the kitchen, hoping that my mother wouldn't be there. Her mood usually went downhill when I mentioned the visions, so I tried not to, but there were times—like the other day, and today—when I had to bring them up. But I was starting to think I should just stop mentioning them entirely. If I did, my parents might think the visions had stopped, and they might think that nothing was wrong with me. The thing I wanted to stop the most was the doctor visits. Whenever I went, I'd get lots of tests, including bloodwork and brain scans. The results never showed anything abnormal, but I still had to take the tests, even when I hadn't had visions. I wanted all the testing to end someday, but that meant I couldn't ever mention the visions again, no matter how much I wanted to. The testing was expensive, and I constantly felt guilty and unhappy about it.

I strode down the hall and then took a left into the kitchen, and glanced around to see how it had come through the quake. There were a couple of things on the floor: pens and a couple pads of paper that my mom used for writing grocery lists. There were also leafs of old shopping lists scattered around the room and since these were closest to me, I bent to pick them up. My father wouldn't be home for a while, and my mother was probably talking to the doctor right about now, the way she always did after I mentioned a vision. I sighed. It didn't matter—I could clean up without her. Thanks to dad fixing all the furniture to the walls, and putting locks on anything that swung open and shut—including the refrigerator—there wasn't a lot of mess. I finished cleaning up the letters and set them on the counter beside the fridge, then moved to pick up the pens and pads of paper. I pulled open a drawer in the counter to the left of the fridge, dropped them in, and was about to push the drawer shut when something caught my eye. I reached in with both hands and pulled it out so I could examine it more closely.

It was a slightly faded photo, and it had been taken when I'd been a lot younger—how young, I wasn't sure. Maybe five or so years old, I decided eventually, so it had probably been taken before we'd moved from Fallarbor Town to Nacrene City. In the picture, my parents were standing as they looked down at me and smiling, looking on the verge of laughter. My mother had her brown hair up and was wearing a blue dress shirt and black dress pants, while my father was wearing a dark blue suit and red tie. He was leaning down towards me, hands reaching out. His eyes were a little sympathetic even though he was laughing. My young self was was wearing a deep red shirt with a blue tie, along with tan dress pants. My hair looked the same now as it had then: short, black and straight. My father had black hair, too, but it was a little coarser and stuck out a bit on the top. We had almost the same dark skin, just a little darker than my mother's. Apparently I got more traits from my father. There was nothing unusual about this picture; it was a typical family photo, but...

But there was someone in the picture that wasn't part of the family now. The reason that my parents were reacting the way they were was because I was tightly hugging a small Treecko to my chest and laughing. The Treecko seemed caught between discomfort and happiness as I squeezed it probably too tightly. I frowned at the picture, then glanced at the fridge. My mother was avid about sticking magnets and pictures on it—there were pictures of me from when I was a baby, a few group photos of the three of us with me at varying ages, as well as a couple pictures of friends and relatives—so the reason why she'd left this one out was probably because of the Treecko. My parents had never mentioned it, not even once. I turned the picture over to look at the white back, where she usually wrote dates or descriptions, but there was nothing on this one. I glanced closer, and noticed that there was a line of white paint on the back, and I knew that something had been written there and covered up. I lifted my left pointer finger to scratch at it, but I stuffed it in my right pocket when I heard my mother coming into the kitchen. If the picture had been left in a drawer for ten years, then my mom had not wanted it to be found. I'd never been interested in that drawer, but even so, there had always been a chance that someone would open it and find the picture. So why hadn't she just thrown it away? I was glad that she had kept it, though, because now I was very curious about that Treecko.

"Gale, thanks for cleaning up." My mother smiled as she walked into the kitchen, but her face was pinched, and I could tell she was still upset with me. She had changed her clothes and was wearing khaki pants and a yellow shirt, and she'd brushed her hair and pulled it up into a bun. Inwardly I felt annoyed at her reaction, even though I was used to it. I decided to let the topic of my vision drop. We'd already been prepared for the earthquake. There were many of them each year, too many to count but fortunately nothing too powerful. People were always prepared for quakes, so my visions weren't particularly useful. I wondered if anyone would listen to me, and with the exception of Sam and Brandon, I knew that no one would. It was rare that anyone was killed because of an earthquake, but there were usually some minor injuries. Only a few people had been killed during earthquakes in Nacrene City, and that had been a long time ago, before people started earthquake-proofing their houses. "It was good that the quake wasn't very big." I nodded.

"But there have been a lot of earthquakes lately," I noted, watching her expression carefully so I could see what reaction she would have. "More than normal." I didn't get visions all the time, but I had eventually figured out that they only happened when I was touching something. I had figured it out only after recalling as many visions as I could, and I confirmed it was only after I came in contact with some object or person. But the visions didn't always happen; otherwise I'd probably never be able to relax. They always happened without warning, and as hard as I'd tried, I'd never been able to teach myself to control them. And there was another thing: All of the visions I'd had so far seemed to be in the future. My mother frowned and shook her head, oblivious to what I was thinking about.

"I haven't noticed, if so," she disagreed, and shook her head again. I bit my lip, then shrugged and grinned. "The amount of earthquakes seem normal."

"I guess so," I said, deciding to relent. "I don't like them, so maybe I notice them more and think there are a lot."

"Maybe so," my mother said, nodding, and she seemed to relax a bit once I found some explanation for my uneasiness. "What do you want for breakfast?" She asked, walking to the refrigerator. I winced when she pushed the drawer shut, the one that the picture in my pocket had been in. I'd forgotten to shut it—would she realize the picture was missing later?

"Um...I was just going to have cereal," I mumbled, and she turned. A disapproving look was on her face.

"You should have something better than that," she chided. "How about eggs?"

"Alright...thanks," I said, fighting back a sigh. That meant I'd probably have to eat with her at the table, which would open up a possible Q&A session that would be very awkward. I watched as she turned back to the refrigerator, then let my gaze wander out the window while I listened to her crack the eggs into a bowl. After that, my mind wandered. My family had never had Pokémon, but my parents had jobs that involved them. It was rare for someone to have a job or career that didn't have to do with the creatures. My mother helped out at the Pokémon Center every day, usually leaving at ten in the morning and coming back early in the evening. My father, Derek, worked at the Nacrene Museum, and some days he came home pretty late. Despite where he worked, he had never been too interested in Pokémon, and my mother hadn't, either. I liked Pokémon and spent plenty of time around them despite not having any. I went to the museum sometimes to take my dad lunch, or to wander around and look at the exhibits.

Whenever I'd visit my friends, sometimes we'd train or play with their Pokémon. Sam had a Meowth, and an Eevee that she was considering evolving into a Vaporeon, while Brandon had a Torchic and a Pachirisu. My friends weren't trainers, but they still trained their Pokémon and occasionally battled each other, usually after homework, on weekends and during holidays. Sam and Brandon's Pokémon were almost always with them, except for when they were at school, and when I went to see them they'd be playing a short distance away from the three of us or crowding around us asking for attention. I thought they were cool, and liked being around them, but I'd never thought about having some. Sam always told me that I should catch a Pokémon of my own, but I was never sure if my parents would agree, so I'd usually just change the subject. Until now I'd never wondered why my parents didn't seem to be interested in Pokémon, despite their careers; I'd always just thought it was just that—a lack of interest—but now I was a little suspicious.

I thought I'd never had Pokémon, but the picture I'd discovered suggested otherwise. The question now was why had my parents hidden that picture and not told me about that Treecko? Maybe something bad had happened...it had run away, or died, maybe, though Pokémon usually lived a long time. But if something bad had happened, that explained why my parents might not have wanted to tell me. I'd been too little to remember, so there had been no need for them to explain what had happened to it. I glanced at my mother, saw she wasn't watching me, and then slipped the picture out of my pocket. Turning it over, I tried scratching at the paint again, and a few seconds later, I started to see the words that had been hidden. _Gale, _I read, and swallowed, but kept scratching at the dried correction fluid. _Gale's...first...Pokémon..._

I kept the picture under the table as I studied it, then slipped it back into my pocket when I heard my mother coming to the table. She was balancing two plates of scrambled eggs and toast, and I stood hurriedly and took one, then sat down. "Thanks. It looks good." My mother smiled and sat in the chair across the table from me and started eating. I was hungry, but didn't feel much enthusiasm for eating, though I did so my mom wouldn't ask any questions. Once I was finished, I stood and picked up my plate, and took my mother's when I saw that she was finished. I washed the dishes quickly and put them away. "Thanks for breakfast, mom," I said, and headed for my room, not waiting for her to say anything. I grabbed a small gray backpack and put the picture in my pocket, then grabbed a video games Brandon had lent me and tossed it inside the backpack. I quickly made a plan; I'd go visit Brandon and talk to him about the picture. I didn't want to bring it up to mom. Somehow, I knew she wouldn't take it well. I grabbed my house key and dropped it into my left pocket, then slipped on a pair of sunglasses and headed back down the hall into the kitchen. Not saying anything, I headed towards the front door.

"Are you going somewhere?" I heard my mother ask just as my right hand gripped the doorknob.

"Just to Brandon's house. He lent me a video game, but I never got a chance to play it, so I'm gonna give it back." I turned and saw my mom nodding approvingly. That was true, at least, so I didn't have trouble sounding convincing.

"Well, see you later, then," she said. "Don't forget to take your medicine." I thought of the plastic case that looked like the pink-and-white Heal Ball (it was hard to get non-Pokémon related items, but I didn't mind) in my backpack that held the pills I took once a day, and tried not to look or sound resentful.

"I have it," I told her, then opened the door and headed quickly through it before she could tell me anything else. I shut the door, a little roughly, I noticed too late. I'd probably get lectured when I got back home, I thought sourly.

Once on the road, I turned right and looked down the road. It took around ten minutes to reach Brandon's house, and there was a small grove of trees along the way, so I looked around to see what kinds of Pokémon were wandering nearby. There were a bunch of Pidove fluttering around overhead, chirping and singing loudly as they did so, and a few Pansear and Swadloon were ambling around. I'd heard before that it was dangerous to walk around without a Pokémon, in case the wild ones attacked, but the Pokémon around here weren't too dangerous. I had bothered a couple of them in the past by accident though, and had come away with a couple bites and scratches. Some had been serious enough to leave scars on my arms and legs, but I hardly noticed them now. They'd faded eventually and now almost blended into my skin.

I was watching the sky as another Pidove shot over my head when a loud rustling in the grass brought my attention back to my surroundings. The rustling was coming from behind me and to the right, so I turned and looked around, and finally spotted a large bush with red flowers that was moving. Warily, I approached the bush, then stopped as a feeling of warning came over me. I stepped backward slowly, sensing that I shouldn't be poking around the woods anymore, and after I'd retreated a fair distance I turned and quickly began walking away. The rustling continued, and I kept sneaking backward glances, a little unnerved. The Pokémon around here weren't too big, but whatever was in that bush sounded like a fair-sized Pokémon.

Glancing back ahead, I saw that the end of the woods was coming up, and gave a little sigh of relief. I hurried my steps, then stopped suddenly as the ground below me began rumbling. My first thought was that it was another earthquake even as the ground burst open in a shower of dirt, revealing a large Pokémon that lunged towards me, knocking me to the ground and pinning me by both arms. I looked up at it in alarm, noting with amazement that it was a large Grovyle. It leered down at me and raised its arms suddenly as if it was going to slash at me. Without thinking I reached up and grabbed its arms, trying to push it away, and it growled angrily and pinned me down again. Grovyle had never appeared here as far as I knew, and definitely not any that looked this big or powerful. I kicked my legs and struggled, trying to throw it off, but it was too strong. Suddenly I felt the ground spinning, a sign that a vision was coming on. It was stronger than any vision I'd had before, and I closed my eyes tightly in pain as images appeared in my mind.

I saw a younger me playing eagerly with a Treecko; I threw a small blue ball and the Treecko went darting after it. Never mind that it wasn't a canine Pokémon, I guess, because the little guy seemed to be having a blast. As the Treecko ran back to me and dropped the ball in my hands, I laughed and hugged the little creature close to me. But suddenly, the Treecko was pulled from me by someone whose face I couldn't see. The figure seemed familiar, but I couldn't place the person. I jolted as the vision ended with me running, hands outstretched towards the Treecko, who was reaching for me too. A cry broke into the silence of the vision, startling me awake. My eyes opened opened abruptly to see the Grovyle still leaning over me. It was staring downward with a slightly bewildered expression. I tried to get up, but still felt dizzy, and I knew I couldn't go anywhere, anyway. The Grovyle had me pinned strongly and wasn't letting me up. I felt my eyes slip closed and knew that I was blacking out.

* * *

It was dark when I opened my eyes again, and wearily I wondered how long I'd been out. I was lying on my back, but gained my bearings and then rolled over and carefully rose to my feet. The dizziness seemed to be gone, and I glanced around nervously, wondering if the Grovyle was still around. What had gotten into it? Maybe I'd accidentally disturbed its home which had caused it to attack. I'd done that many times before while going to see Brandon. I still didn't think Grovyle lived around here, though. A rustle nearby made me jump and fall backwards in shock. I gaped into the darkness and saw the Grovyle step out from a bush and approach me slowly, as if it were just curious now. I dug my heels into the hard ground and backed away from it, afraid it would attack again. "If you want me to leave, I'll leave." The Grovyle tipped its head and stared at me, halting for a moment, but soon began approaching me again. I scooted away until my back hit something; I glanced around and up and saw a large tree towering above my head. When I looked back the Grovyle was standing right in front of my, our eyes level. Its yellow orbs looked right into my eyes, and I tried to sit still, thinking that it would lose interest in me and leave. But it didn't. We sat there for a few minutes and I began to fidget. "What is it? I don't have any food." One of the scars I had was from a Pokémon that had wanted the candy bar I'd been eating during one of my visits to Brandon's house. The Grovyle closed its eyes and shook its head, and I flinched as it reached towards me. But I just felt the soft touch of its hand on my forehead, and I opened my eyes to see its right hand raised, as if it was checking me for a fever.

_This Grovyle is a little odd_, I thought uneasily, trying to move away from it, but it suddenly threw its arms around me and yanked me closer. I yelled and squirmed but the Pokémon didn't let go. It was like it was hugging me but why, I didn't know. Then the vision came back to me in a flash, the one of the Treecko I'd been playing with. I'd hugged it just before it had been taken from me by someone. As the Grovyle pulled away and released me, I stared at it and found myself reaching into my pocket for the photo I'd discovered earlier. It was well beyond sunset and darkness had stretched to every corner of the woods by now, but I had read somewhere that Grovyle had good eyesight, even in the dark. I held out the picture with shaking hands and watched as the Pokémon took it and studied it curiously. "Is that you? The Treecko?" I asked, voice shaking a bit, and my breath caught when the Grovyle lifted its gaze from the photo and nodded once. If I'd been holding the picture, I would have dropped it out of shock. "That is you?" The Grovyle nodded again and handed the picture back to me; I slipped it back into my pocket. "Really?" Grovyle hesitated, then gave me an impatient look. "Why didn't you live with us? What happened?" I blurted out questions before I realized that I wouldn't be able to understand the answers. "Never mind," I sighed, then stared at in amazement at the Grovyle. "What do you want to do now?" I asked, standing up, and the Grovyle tugged on my arms and began to walk away, in the opposite direction of Brandon's house. I followed it carefully, and soon we'd left the woods and were heading back towards my house. I headed towards the front door, knowing my mother would be worrying about me, but I felt a tug on my shirt and looked at the Grovyle. It didn't seem to want to go inside. "What's wrong?" The Pokémon pointed at my house and shook its head firmly. "I need to tell my mother that I'm alright. I've been gone for a while." I took my house key out of my pocket, quickly unlocked the door and stepped inside, and heard the Grovyle following. There was no one in the kitchen, and the lights weren't on, so I fumbled for the one near the door and flipped it on. I saw a note on the table and moved closer to read it; picking it up, I grimaced and felt dismay sweep over me.

_Gale, if you're reading this, stay put! Your father and I are out looking for you._

"Great," I muttered, and dropped the note back onto the table, watching it flutter onto the wooden surface, then headed to my room. I emptied the contents of my backpack onto my bed, and gathered a few things to put inside it: a couple pairs of socks, a small blanket, a flashlight and batteries, a first-aid kit, a map of the region, my wallet and my tan bucket hat. Shouldering the backpack I turned and saw Grovyle looking around the room with interest. "So...you want to go somewhere? Is it far?" I asked, and its yellow eyes fixed on me as it nodded. "I'm going to get some food first. I haven't eaten in a while. I'll get you something, too." I followed as the Grovyle strode out into the hall and then into the kitchen. I rifled through the pantry and grabbed a box of granola bars, then emptied it into my backpack and grabbed a tin of dried fruit as well. I found some cheese slices and bottles of water in the fridge; I took a handful of the slices and four bottles of water. I wandered towards a drawer, pulled it open, found a few small notebooks, a couple pens and a few matchboxes. I decided to take all of those, too, and put the matches in a plastic bag so they wouldn't get drenched in case the water bottles opened or broke.

On my way out, I hesitated at the kitchen table and picked up the pen that had been left there, and wrote a few lines on the note. _Mom, Dad, t__here's something I have to do. I'll be back, but I don't know how soon. I'm safe, I promise, so don't worry about me. _Pocketing the pen, I turned to Grovyle. "Ready." The note on the table had said to stay at home, and I may have if Grovyle hadn't been with me. The Pokémon didn't seem to want to stay here, and I wasn't going to leave it alone. My parents had kept the picture of Grovyle, then a Treecko, from me and I was more than a little miffed about that—plus I was curious about what the Pokémon wanted to show me. And I knew that if my parents hadn't wanted the picture to be found, they likely wouldn't want Grovyle anywhere near the house. "Lead the way," I told Grovyle resolutely, and with a satisfied nod the Pokémon walked across the kitchen, opened the front door, and led me out into the darkness. I followed closely and didn't look back as I locked the door and shut it firmly behind me.

* * *

**Well, there we have it, the first chapter. In the next, Grovyle starts leading Gale to the forest where Celebi lives, and on the way, things get interesting. In the game, Grovyle and the main character are attacked by Dusknoir when they are going to the past, but I didn't know how long they'd known each other, or how much the main character knew about the time gears before that happened. When I started writing this story, I decided to have it set just before the planet had been paralyzed, and by the time the characters went back to the future, the planet's paralysis would have been completed. But anyway, I'll just let you read and see all of it for yourself. Thank you for reading! Whether this is good or not, I'm just glad I started writing, because I have been wanting to write a Mystery Dungeon story for ages. For me, starting to write this was like having cheesecake. XD**

**Oh, and "Copy-Meowth" is my made-up Pokémon world version of "Copycat", since there aren't any cats per se...just Meowth and Skitty and that Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum cat thing whose name I can't remember. The one with the really long spirally tail. Glameow, I think.**


	2. Pursuit

**Chapter two! Hurrah! I think the way I've been writing this is fine for me. Now I'm going to have fun about writing how Grovyle and Gale communicate. :) If you remember that note Grovyle left the hero and his partner, it was written in Footprint Runes. Gale's gonna have some fun learning how to write them in this chapter, which will be useful later.**

**I'm changing the original story of Mystery Dungeon 2 a bit. It's been a while since I played through the whole game so I forgot some things, and when I played the game over, I realized I'd changed some things but I think the story is turning out the way I want it. I knew I was going to be changing the game events anyway since I made up how the main character and Grovyle met.**

**Anyway, hope the story is still fun!**

* * *

**Pursuit**

I leaned against a tree and swung my backpack around front so I could pull out the map and examine it. Grovyle and I had been walking all night, and just now the sky was beginning to brighten. Streaks of clouds dyed with pale pink and yellow were sifting calmly across the sky as dawn neared. I watched as Grovyle waited nearby, glancing all around him, and then at the sky as if he were nervous about something. He'd stopped walking a couple minutes ago, and I thought it had been to rest, but he had hardly rested since we'd set off from Nacrene City. Shrugging, I focused my attention on the map of Unova I'd just unfolded and took out a pen so I could mark it up. I circled Nacrene City, then drew a dotted line to mark the route I thought we'd taken. We hadn't gone so far that I didn't recognize the area, but I was still having trouble figuring out where we were. We were in a forest, so it was hard for me to find any landmarks if there weren't signs or buildings. "Hey, Grovyle," I called, and the Pokémon turned and trotted over. I held the map out to him and showed him the markings I'd made. "Do you know where we are on here?" Grovyle studied the map, then looked up at me with a bemused expression. "Guess you don't really use maps, huh," I noted, and looked at the map one last time before folding it and stowing it away. "I'll just follow you. Maybe I learn how to find my way without a map." I wasn't really counting on it, though. I was good at finding my way around Nacrene City, but I hadn't been outside of it very much, so now I had no idea what I was doing. I only knew that we were heading to Striaton City because of the map and a sign I'd discovered earlier.

Grovyle seemed to smirk and he finally sat down, taking a seat next to me and leaning against the tree. I glanced sideways at Grovyle and frowned. "I was five when you lived with us, and that was when my family lived in Hoenn. Did you really travel all that way?" Grovyle caught my eye and nodded once, then looked away towards the sky again. "That's a long way. You've gotten strong...and you evolved, too!" Grovyle glanced at the ground and began drawing in the dirt at our feet. It looked like he was drawing Pokémon footprints. "You know...I'm sorry." Grovyle stopped drawing and looked at me. "Whatever happened, whether it was my doing or not, I abandoned you. I didn't want to. My parents didn't tell me about you, but I don't know why." Grovyle leaned closer to me and pointed at the footprints in the dirt, and I glanced at them. "What's that?"

Grovyle lifted his gaze towards the sky, then brushed away the footprints he'd drawn. He reached a finger out and drew a single footprint, and then a shaky symbol that I eventually recognized as the first letter in the alphabet. "Is that footprint like that letter?" Grovyle met my eye and nodded. "Is that how Pokémon write?" Another nod. I felt excited and copied the footprint as best I could. It looked like a Meowth footprint. I could at least tell that since Sam's Meowth left prints like that all the time when he played outside. "This is unrelated," I said, "and probably a bad question, but...are you a he?" Grovyle looked at me and glared fiercely. "Sorry, sorry...I wondered...so I just..." Breaking off awkwardly, I looked back at the footprints. "Are you trying to teach me these?" Grovyle nodded and sniffed as if irritated. "I'm sorry about that question. Really. But I didn't want to be wrong and make you mad." There was silence for a moment. "So you are a male?" Grovyle raised his right arm and thumped me over the head as he nodded angrily. "Okay! I'm sorry!"

Grovyle snorted and wrote six footprints in the sand, and I watched closely while rubbing my head, but couldn't tell what he might be writing. Then, slowly, Grovyle wrote letters under them and I studied them for a second before making out a name: C-E-L-E-B-I. I pulled out my mini-notebook and wrote the footprints in it, then which letters they represented below them. "Celebi is that Pokémon people say can time travel, right?" I asked, and Grovyle nodded eagerly. Despite the fact that no one had ever seen Celebi, people were still familiar with it. "Why is Celebi important?" The Pokémon's expression became troubled, and he looked away. "Would there be a reason we had to time travel?" Grovyle glanced at me and nodded. I felt a pulse of unease but didn't say anything as Grovyle wrote in the dirt again. I made out an I and an L, but couldn't read any other part of it. "I can't read it. I'm sorry. Do you know any other letters?" Grovyle hesitated, then shook his head and seemed to be anxious. "What about Unown letters?" Again he shook his head, then crossed his arms and stood quickly. "Time to go? Alright then." I put the notebook away. "I can learn them somehow. You've been a good teacher already." Grovyle seemed to smile faintly at me before turning to lead the way again. "I don't understand yet, but I'll follow you wherever you need to go. I don't want to be separated again." We walked without a spoken, body language or written conversation between us for a few more hours, and during that time, the sun had risen fully. It was already hot and I was glad that I had brought a hat; I pulled it from my backpack and situated it tightly on my head.

"Do you need water, Grovyle?" I asked, holding out a bottle of water, but saw him shake his head without turning to look at me. Another hour passed and finally Grovyle stopped. I sat down against a rock and massaged my feet, noting that my white and blue shoes were pretty dirty, but they were holding up alright. Grovyle still seemed to be keeping watch for something. I took out a granola bar and opened the package; Grovyle turned when the plastic crackled. "You should eat something. Sorry I don't have Pokémon food, but you should try this." Grovyle wandered over to me and took the bar that I was holding out. I took a bite of mine and watched him sniff his warily. "It's just oats and honey. Nothing weird." Still wary, Grovyle nibbled part of the bar, and sniffed it again, then took a bigger bite. A glint came into his eyes and he began chewing it eagerly. "You like it? I have a lot more." I gazed off at the road ahead of us. "We have a long way to go, huh?" Grovyle nodded once, then sat down once he'd finished eating, and began drawing again. He wrote _Celebi _and a few more footprints I didn't understand, and finally the word with the L and I in it. I pulled out my notebook and matched up the footprints with the letters that were in Celebi, and began to vaguely fill in the blanks. "So is he—" Grovyle crossed his arms. "She?" He nodded, appearing a little surprised that I'd understood so quickly. I laughed and Grovyle smirked a bit. "Is she going to help us? Where is she?" The Pokémon pointed off ahead of us, where a dirt trail navigated through the woods, far off into the distance. I could see a large patch of green far in the distance bigger than I'd ever seen. It stretched far to the left and right, and off towards the horizon, farther than I was able to see. "Wow." Grovyle stood and beckoned to me, and I quickly followed. Even at this early stage in our trip, I wondered if I'd ever go home again. I thought about my parents, and felt a little ache in my chest, but I became angry when I thought about how they had kept Treecko a secret from me.

"Grovyle," I muttered as we walked, and his head twitched around a little, so I knew he was listening. "When I was a kid...was I the same as I am now?" Grovyle's head inclined once and my breath caught. "The...visions? Do you know about them?" Another firm nod. I lowered my head a bit. "So I've always been this way." I thought about the medicine the doctor had given me, and decided that I wouldn't take it again. It hadn't stopped the visions, and it hadn't made me normal, like my parents had wanted. The visions had made it hard for me to make friends, so that was why my family had moved the first time, and thankfully we hadn't moved again afterward.

Nacrene City was a nice place to live, so I'd been glad when my family had started fixing the house to withstand earthquakes. That meant we wouldn't think about moving anytime soon, not after putting all that effort into renovating. I'd tried to not mention the visions to anyone, and eventually, I made a few friends. The friends I'd made when I'd been younger had moved away, but when I'd turned twelve, I'd met Sam and Brandon and we'd been best friends ever since. They knew about my visions, and they'd been awkward around me at first, but when they saw that I didn't have any other weird abilities and that I was the same as I'd been when we'd met, they calmed down and warmed up to me again. I remember asking them if they cared that I might be crazy, and they'd convinced me they didn't. But they had explained that they didn't think I was crazy, and that had meant a lot. Sam and Brandon had made me a less distant person. If I'd never met them, I don't know what I would have done. I took a breath and brought my attention back to Grovyle. "When did the visions start? Around when you came to live with my family?" Grovyle nodded, and I exhaled sharply. I'd been different almost from the get-go, but I guess that didn't matter now. I felt better now that I was with Grovyle, even though I had only known him for a short time, and even though I hardly remembered our time together. I felt guilty for leaving, and I missed Sam and Brandon most of all, but I knew that I wouldn't go back now. Maybe I...couldn't go back. I didn't know where Grovyle was taking me, or what he wanted to do.

I glanced at the sky, shading my eyes as I did so. The sun had passed its highest point and was starting to angle towards the horizon, though it was still pretty hot. I pulled out a bottle of water and caught up with Grovyle. "Let's take a rest. You need to eat and drink something, and so do I." Grovyle gave me a long look, then walked off the path and sat next to a tree. I took a spot in front of Grovyle and handed him the water bottle after unscrewing the lid. "It's not cold anymore, but it's still water." He took it after a pause and started drinking from it.

While Grovyle drank, I started tracing a finger in the dirt, and tried to remember the footprint drawings I'd learned. I spelled Celebi with some difficulty, but when I looked up at Grovyle, he nodded. Apparently I'd gotten it right, so I kept writing it over and over until I was comfortable with those footprints. Grovyle set the water bottle down and moved until he was on my left, and started to write different footprints. He paused for a moment over one, and wrote a P. I copied the footprint and then took out my notebook and wrote it down, then studied the letters I'd learned so far. Grovyle had said he didn't know many letters, but he only had ten more to learn before he mastered the whole alphabet. It was strange, I thought, that we were teaching each other to write. I was teaching him the letters humans used, and he was teaching me the letters that Pokémon used. I wondered if anyone knew about these footprint letters. "How am I doing?" I asked Grovyle, and he met my eyes with a sly grin. "That bad?" I scoffed. "I'll get better...eventually."

I wrote Q, then wondered what the footprint for Q looked like. "This is after this footprint," I said, pointing to the one over P, and watched Grovyle's finger stretch out to write a footprint over the Q. It looked like a large clawed footprint, maybe from an Empoleon or a Charizard. I quickly wrote it in my notebook, and we finished the remaining nine letters like that. I felt a little confused, the way I did when I sat through math, but I was looking forward to learning the footprints more than Algebra. "Thanks." Grovyle stood and offered his paw; I took it and stood, then returned the notebook and pen to my backpack. I picked up the water bottle and offered it to Grovyle again, but he shook his head, so I took a drink from it and screwed the cap back on before placing it in my backpack. "Grovyle...you can't speak human, but you learned how to write human words. You know a lot more than you said. Did anyone teach you?" The Pokémon shook his head and I let out a breath, impressed. "You're really clever. Wish I could learn math like you learned to write." Grovyle shrugged and motioned for me to follow, so I did, but I noticed him lifting his head a little higher and wondered if he liked the praise more than he let on. As we walked, I checked my map a couple times, and concluded that we were reaching Striaton City, the town that came before Nacrene City. Its population was just a little lower than my town, but it was almost the same, since a forest surrounded it too. It looked like we'd have to go past the city to get to the big forest where Grovyle seemed to be leading us. I didn't mind stopping there, since I was beat. We'd been walking since last night and Grovyle showed no signs of slowing down.

"Hey, Grovyle," I panted, running a bit to catch up with the speed walking Pokémon, "think we could rest in Striaton City for while? Maybe even until tomorrow?" Grovyle wrote something in the dirt and I studied the footprints. My heart sank; he'd only written two letters, and it didn't take me long to figure out what his answer was. "Come on, please? I'm really tired." Again, the answer was no, but this time Grovyle looked a little annoyed. "Alright. Just for a couple hours, then. How's that?" Grovyle nodded, apparently satisfied, and I let out a deep sigh and started following Grovyle again. An hour or so passed and we finally reached the city, and Grovyle let me lead the way. I knew this town somewhat well, since the layout was similar to Nacrene City, and I'd been here a couple times. I led Grovyle through the town for a few minutes and turned a final corner to see the tell-tale red roof of the Pokemon Center. Some trainers kept didn't keep their Pokémon in aPokéball, but it wasn't very common, so I hoped no one would be suspicious. The Pokémon Center staff usually were helpful, so I walked in confidently with Grovyle by my side, and headed to the counter.

"Excuse me," I said to the woman behind the main counter, "do you have any rooms available?" She nodded and smiled at me, then at Grovyle, who looked back at her with interest. "They're just over there." She gestured to the right of the room, and I saw a door on the far wall. "Stay as long as you like. You both look exhausted," she added sympathetically, and I nodded my thanks.

"We appreciate it, ma'am," I said, and headed towards the door, ready to get some sleep after a day and a half of hard walking. "You should rest too, Grovyle," I told the Pokémon quietly, since there were a few other trainers sleeping here. A few even had their Pokémon out, and the creatures were curled up either beside their trainer or at the foot of the bed. About twenty or so beds were here for trainers to use when they passed through towns, and there was no charge to use them, just like the Center. Grovyle shrugged as I located and settled into a bed near the door so I could get up later without waking anyone up. I set my backpack under the large white pillow on the bed so I wouldn't lose or forget about it. I had just about fallen asleep when I felt a weight at my feet; I glanced up and saw Grovyle lying there on its back, arms under its head, eyes closed and chest rising gently. Smiling a bit, I laid my head back down on the pillow and closed my eyes, wondering if Grovyle had slept on my bed when I'd been a kid.

* * *

I woke to someone shaking me roughly, but as I woke up I knew that no one even around. Tremors had started shaking the room, and I sat bolt upright and looked around for Grovyle. He was still sleeping at the foot of the bed, and I shook him firmly. He sat up sharply and shot me a glance, then looked around and sprang from the bed. The room was flooded with light; someone must have flipped the switch on. I saw that all the beds were empty and wondered how long we'd been asleep. Instinct took over and I grabbed a pillow and threw it to Grovyle; the Pokémon caught it swiftly and I grabbed my backpack. "Put that over your head and lie down," I said, and once Grovyle had done so, I lay on my stomach and put the backpack over my head and neck.

A few moments later the tremors stopped, and after a moment I rose to my knees and slipped my backpack on. "Let's go see if anyone needs help," I told Grovyle. He tossed the pillow away and nodded, then hopped off the bed and followed me to the door. Just as I turned opened the door, I felt a sharp yank on my shirt and felt Grovyle pulling me back. "What—" I exclaimed, startled, but broke off when I felt a powerful strike to my stomach. The force of the hit sent me sprawling backwards to the ground, and I landed with a choked gasp. Holding my stomach with both hands, I stood shakily and stared at the doorway, wondering who had hit me. I widened my eyes in alarm as Grovyle lunged for the figure hovering there and recognized the attacker as the Pokémon Dusknoir. There weren't any Dusknoir around these parts, but Brandon had lent me a couple of his books about Pokémon from other regions.

Grovyle slashed at it with an attack I guessed was Leaf Blade—that bit of knowledge thanks to Brandon's books—but Dusknoir blocked the attack and struck out at Grovyle, sending him flying. I yelled in alarm, but Grovyle righted himself in midair and charged across the room again. Dusknoir glanced at me, and I stared back, heart beating heavily against my chest. It raised both arms towards me, and a dark ball formed in front of its hands, and all I could think to do was try and rush Dusknoir and stop the attack. Grovyle slashed Dusknoir with Leaf Blade at the same instant I ran into him, and our momentum sent the Pokémon crashing into the wall. One of Dusknoir's hands smacked me in the face and I felt a dull burning sensation in my forehead. I backed away, stumbling a little from the impact, and saw Dusknoir's hand flash out too quickly for me to avoid it. Its hand was big enough to grab my head and I grappled at the arm, panicked, trying to make it let go. I heard a cry from Grovyle and suddenly Dusknoir's arm went limp, allowing me to shove the hand away.

I saw Grovyle motioning urgently towards me, and I glanced briefly over my shoulder at Dusknoir, then ran after him out into the Center's reception area...and stopped in dismay. Dozens of people were lying unconscious on the floor, some with blood trickling from their foreheads, and all with cuts and bruises. "Grovyle, we have to help!" The Pokémon shook his head and urgently gestured for me to follow. "But they're hurt!" A crashing from behind made me whirl, and I saw that Dusknoir had recovered, but still looked a bit stunned. It didn't seem to have noticed we were still here, so unfortunately, that made up my mind. If I didn't run now, Grovyle and I would end up like these people, so I nodded at him and tried not to look at the terrible scene as I sprinted as fast as I could out of the Center. Adrenaline jolted through my body as I saw more injured people lying outside, but that made it a bit easier to push myself; before I knew it Grovyle and I had left the town far behind. My heart pounded painfully and I panted out a question. "Grovyle...why was that Pokémon after us?"

Grovyle shook his head rapidly as he ran, and didn't look back at me. _And why did it hurt all those other people? What did it want? _Without warning, Grovyle came to a halt and grabbed my right arm, and the pressure caused me to wince for some reason. But there was no time to focus on it, as Grovyle was tugging me deeper into the woods with urgency. Eventually, we stopped, and Grovyle glanced around the clearing we'd arrived in, and sniffed at the ground a couple of times. I didn't see anything special, but I kept quiet and watched. Grovyle tugged at the ground, and I saw that it had covered a large hole in the ground with a sheet of leaves. It motioned for me to climb into the hole, and as I moved closer, I wondered if I'd fit. I didn't weigh too much, but still. Grovyle gave me a push so I hoped for the best and began to crawl down the hole. It was wider than it looked, and I didn't have much trouble getting inside. After crawling for a minute or so, the tunnel opened up into a wide space, and I found that I could stand up without hitting my head.

The burrow looked like a secret hideout, and I noticed a large furrow in the far wall that had berries and apples neatly piled up. There were also bowl-shaped rocks that had been hollowed out under the furrow, and I saw that they had water collected inside. I turned when I heard shuffling behind me; Grovyle had crawled down the hole and was approaching me with a wary expression. I ground my teeth nervously, taking a stab at what he might be angry about. "Look, I'm sorry...it's just...I didn't want to ignore those people." I sighed. "But that Dusknoir would have gotten us too, and it would have been my fault." Grovyle eyed me a moment longer, and its yellow eyes seemed to soften. It knelt and began writing in the dirt, and I stepped closer and sat to see what he was writing. I made a couple mistakes but eventually translated what Grovyle wanted to say.

_It's fune...fine, _I read along in my mind. _We got away. Just, next team...time, don't hesitate. I know Dusknoir, and he never hesitates. _As if I hadn't seen that already. I had almost gotten us caught, though, I remembered guiltily.

"Why did he attack those people?" I asked, feeling a pang of sympathy for the people Dusknoir had injured, and guilt, because they'd been hurt on account of me. I waited for Grovyle to sweep away his previous sentences, and watched as he wrote out a new one.

_He wants to feed us...find us...and call us...kill us. _I don't know what I'd expected, even after being attacked by Dusknoir, but it definitely hadn't been that. I jolted in alarm and gaped at Grovyle.

"Kill us? Are you serious?" Grovyle snorted impatiently and nodded, then scratched some more footprints in the dirt and sat back as I read them.

_He's after Celebi, too, because only the three of us can stop the planet's paralysis. _I had almost gotten the hang of the footprints—only by constantly checking my notebook to compare them to the human alphabet—but even though I'd translated this sentence I had no idea what it meant.

"What's the planet's paralysis?" I questioned curiously, and Grovyle quickly wrote some words in the dirt.

_Time is going out of control because Temporal Tower is starting to collapse. Once it does, the planet will freeze in time. _I nodded when I got the meaning and watched as Grovyle brushed the footprints away to write a new sentence. _There are some important objects called the Time Gears that can restore time and prevent the planet's paralysis._

"So...let me get this straight...time is out of control?" I asked blankly. "And Temporal Tower is real?" Grovyle nodded and swept the words away again. "Is that where you're taking me?" Grovyle shook his head and began to write. "It's that place I saw in one of my visions..." Grovyle paused in his writing for a moment, catching my eye briefly before he finished scrawling footprints in the dirt.

_We're going to meet Celebi because she can send us back in time to find the Time Gears and prevent Temporal Tower's collapse. That place controls time and keeps it in balance._

"Back in time?" I asked, feeling a little uncertain at the prospect of time travel. "And from there, we're looking for the Time Gears." Grovyle nodded. "I don't get all of it, but if time's out of control, isn't it a good thing you want to fix it? Why does Dusknoir want to kill us?"

_Because if we find the Time Gears and get time back on the right track, then it will change the future we're in now. The humans and Pokémon that exist now will disappear if you and I stop the planet's paralysis. That's because, since we're changing the timeline, certain things won't have happened. _I set down my notebook and looked straight at Grovyle, heart beating heavily as I tried to understand.

"So...it'll be like everyone alive now won't have existed?" Grovyle gave a sigh, then nodded, and began to write more footprints.

_Do you want to go back home? _I gulped; this seemed like a challenge to see if I had the courage to keep going.

"I don't like the idea of disappearing...not at all...but if I go back home, that won't help anything. Dusknoir will find me there, and he'll hurt more people." I swallowed, and felt a little shiver run up my spine. "And time stopping everyone sounds really bad."

_It is,_ Grovyle wrote in the dirt, his expression resolute. _Imagine the sun and moon never rising or setting again. The seasons will never change. Time will never move forward again_

"Is Dusknoir the only one that wants to stop us?" I asked, hoping he was, since he was powerful enough. But Grovyle was shaking his head and writing more footprints in the floor.

_Dusknoir isn't working on his own. He's receiving orders from a Pokémon called Dialga._

"Dialga?" I said in disbelief. "He exists?" I'd read about Dialga, but knew that no one had ever seen the Pokémon. The book had said that Dialga, along with Palkia, was just a legend.

_He lives in Temporal Tower, and knows that if the past changes, he'll disappear. _Grovyle's expression was grim as he wrote, and I had to read my notes quickly to translate before Grovyle swept the dirt and erased his writing to begin a new explanation. _He's gone mad with the instinct to survive, and anything that is a threat to his existence, he gets rid of. Dusknoir doesn't want to disappear, either, so he follows Dialga's orders._

"And if he catches us, he'll kill us." I felt a painful throbbing on my right arm and glanced down; a long, red line stretched from the back of my wrist and ended just short of my elbow. It hurt a lot, and was still bleeding a bit, but it was luckily pretty shallow or I'd have been in trouble. I pulled my backpack off to get the first aid kit, and suddenly noticed that Grovyle had a similar scratch on his right arm. I gently held his arm in my uninjured left hand and took a flat square package out and tore it open. Grovyle pulled his arm away and looked at me suspiciously. "This is an anti-bacterial wipe, and it'll help your arm heal." Reluctantly, Grovyle held his arm back out to me, and I dabbed at the cut and made sure it was clean before I wrapped a bandage around it. I tied it off carefully and made sure it was tight enough to stay on, and that it wouldn't cut off Grovyle's circulation. When I was sure it was alright, I pulled out another wipe and dabbed at my own arm, then wrapped a bandage around it and started to tie it awkwardly off. Grovyle reached forward and tied it for me. "Thanks," I told him gratefully. "How does your arm feel?" Grovyle wrote four letters in the dirt, waited until I'd read it, and then began writing more footprints.

_Fine. But you should rest now. Dusknoir won't find us here._ _But let's leave early tomorrow. _I nodded and patted Grovyle on the head, and smiled. As I stood and picked up the first-aid kit to return it to my backpack, I felt a jolt of pain in my middle and forehead. Almost at the same time, a wave of dizziness came over me, and I felt myself falling over as the ground dipped beneath my feet. I closed my eyes as a jumble of images appeared in my mind; I saw Grovyle running and then leaping to avoid a dark ball of energy coming for him. It was the same attack Dusknoir had used earlier. The ball of darkness came a few more times, and finally one of the attacks struck Grovyle and brought it down. But he rose shakily to his feet, shook it off, and continued running. I cracked open my eyes as the vision ended, but I still felt dizzy, and my body suddenly felt weak. Grovyle was leaning over me, and I saw he was holding the first-aid kit.

"He attacked you before," I mumbled weakly. "Dusknoir has been chasing you for a while, hasn't he?" Grovyle nodded and popped the first-aid kit open. He held it out to me, as if asking what to do, then held a paw to his forehead. I remember the stinging pain I'd felt when Dusknoir had hit out at me, and wondered what I looked like. I managed to raise my right arm and pointed at a large band-aid in the white box. "Just use that...it'll be fine after that." Grovyle set the box down and picked the bandaid up. "Take the white pieces of plastic off. It's sticky underneath. Put the sticky side on my head." Grovyle nodded and I watched tiredly as he unpeeled the band-aid. I finally couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and felt Grovyle pressing on my forehead a moment later. "Thanks," I murmured, and felt Grovyle nudge me, and I opened my eyes halfway. He was staring down at me with a worried expression. "I'm just going to rest." I suddenly thought of something and opened my eyes, feeling panicked at the thought of Dusknoir following us with the intent to kill us. "Will Dusknoir find us?" Grovyle shook his head. "Hey...I'm not going to leave you, Grovyle..." My eyes drifted shut and the last thing I remembered was Grovyle curling up next to me as I fell asleep.

* * *

**In the game, Grovyle uses Dig to get the main character and his or her partner out of trouble, so I decided on a whim that Grovyle could dig a hideout to use if Dusknoir found him...like the hidden base the player can make with Secret Power in the Sapphire and Ruby games.**

**I'm having fun with the footprint-rune communication. It may seem that Gale learned it quickly but that'd be too boring. He's just using his notebook for help. Soon he'll be pro, though. He is taking Latin after all, so he's good at learning seldom-taught languages. Just kidding, he's not. :3**

**At this point, I want to write a couple more chapters, and I might end right after Gale meets his new partner Pokémon on the beach. My idea was to write a prequel to Explorers of Time and Darkness and not go into the main story, but if I'm eager enough, I might. I'll have to see.**

**Oh, and the people Dusknoir attacked are alive and well...there's a human hospital right behind the Center. Dusknoir was looking for Gale, and attacked everyone that was in his way...but when he found Grovyle with a human he knew he'd found the right person.**


	3. Weaving

**In the game, the forest where Celebi lives is in the Hidden Land, but in my story, it's part of Unova. I've already changed things besides that, as you'll see. In the game, the Hidden Land was an island in the sky, least that's what it looked like, so I think Grovyle was just born there maybe, like the main character, or got there some other way...I'm not exactly sure. I don't know how the planet's paralysis didn't make Grovyle and the main character freeze, though, but maybe I'm thinking too much. They might not have been born yet, but their parents would have been frozen in time if the planet's paralysis affected them...uh...I better stop there. Yeah, I don't know. But that's okay, I like making up my own theories anyway.  
**

**Phew, anyway, this chapter was also fun to write. I'm really liking my decision to start this story. I want to finish off this story, and I do want to write about the main story, but I'm still not completely sure if I will. Most everyone knows the main story, anyway. Eh, I better stop talking and let you read. Enjoy! The only characters I own are Gale, and his parents and friends. I don't own anything in the Pokémon franchise, but I'm just glad I had a chance to play the games and write about them. I wish I could draw Pokémon-related stuff , too, but I'm not good. I'm not being modest either; I'm really not good. XD I have drawn animals, people and Pokémon before but it's mostly for fun.**

**I don't own the game or the plot, or the characters either, except Gale and his parents and friends. I don't own their Pokémon because I didn't make them up, as you know. Enjoy! :)**

* * *

**Weaving**

By the time the sun rose the next day, Grovyle and I had already been walking for a good couple of hours in our attempt to distance ourselves from Dusknoir as much as possible. It was a little cooler today, and the sky had been overcast ever since dawn this morning. Grovyle had set the pace as usual, but I seemed to be getting the hang of keeping up with him. I had gained some determination to run because Dusknoir had attacked people in Striaton City, and I didn't want that to happen again. He'd also attacked Grovyle and me, and if he found us again, we'd be held up or maybe even stopped for good. I knew by now that Grovyle had the will to avoid Dusknoir at all costs, and slowly, I was adopting that will too. I wasn't going to do anything that would get us caught or separated.

Even when Grovyle had showed up suddenly after ten years, and then started leading me somewhere, I hadn't really believed our journey to be anything serious until Dusknoir showed up and started attacking us. All of what was happening was more than I'd expected to happen. According to Grovyle, If we found Celebi, went back in time to locate the Time Gears, then used them to restore balance to time...Grovyle and I would disappear. Celebi would, too, and so would everyone else in the present. I shook my head, trying to push the thought away. I didn't have to think about all of that now. I was getting ahead of myself.

Because the Time Gears could be anywhere it would likely take a long time to gather them, so I would have a while to spend with him. According to the old photo of me and Grovyle before he'd evolved, I'd been happy having him with me, but for some reason he'd been taken away. I wondered if my parents had done it. Grovyle could have been kidnapped by someone, but that didn't seem right. But I knew that I didn't want to experience losing Grovyle again, even though I'd be disappearing with him as well. It didn't seem like there was a choice though, unless I wanted the planet's paralysis to happen.

Well...I knew there was the choice of turning back, but if I did that I'd really be abandoning Grovyle—as well as betraying his trust—and Dusknoir would definitely find me. I might be home by that time, I might not. If I was at home, he'd not only get me, but my parents, friends and possibly everyone else in Nacrene City. I shook my head quickly, astonished and guilty that I was thinking that far into what would happen. The thought of going back home had crossed my mind before, but that had been when I thought that I'd just go home once I figured out where Grovyle wanted me to go. I thought that he'd come home with me too, but I now knew why he hadn't wanted to.

Only now did I know that I would never leave Grovyle, not after he'd just found me, and not when we'd disappear after we got time back to normal. I was going to stay with him for however long we had left, no matter what. I did have a choice, but I knew I'd always make the choice to remain with Grovyle until we found all of the Time Gears and returned them to Temporal Tower. After that...I guess time would take care of the rest. That reassured me a bit, though I wasn't sure why...

I shook off my left backpack strap and slung it around to my front, wincing when I pressed it too hard against my bruised stomach, then unzipped my backpack and dug the map out. A large expanse of forest was between us and the next town. Glancing up, I saw the forest in the distance, but knew that it was slowly looming towards us. "Is Celebi in that forest?" Grovyle nodded once and I lowered the map slightly as I compared it to the landscape around us. "We're almost there, then. We just have to watch out for you-know-who." Grovyle smirked haughtily and turned his attention back to the path ahead. I folded the map quickly and put it away, then slung my backpack on again. We traveled in silence for a couple minutes until a thought struck me. "There have been more earthquakes lately, Grovyle. Is that because of time going out of control?" The Pokémon nodded and I swallowed heavily. My stomach growled, and Grovyle twitched his head towards me, obviously hearing the noise; it would be hard not to hear something that loud. I guess I was getting my appetite back.

Eventually, Grovyle veered off the path and sat against a tree. I sighed in relief and pulled a handful of Oran berries out of the first-aid kit for Grovyle, and he took them eagerly. After he started eating I picked a granola bar and started munching on it. "Where do we take the Time Gears once we have them all?" Grovyle swallowed a berry and drew some footprints in the ground with his right paw. I studied them intently, trying to remember my translation notes, and managed to translate enough of it to understand. "To Temporal Tower? So once we do that, time will get back to normal?" Grovyle nodded and began munching on another Oran Berry, and I did the same with my granola bar. I ate a slice of cheese, too, and offered one to Grovyle but he refused it. "Is that enough food for you?" I asked, and Grovyle licked his lips in satisfaction after finishing his Oran Berries. "Alright." The Pokémon seemed to chuckle as he stood up, and I brushed the crumbs from the granola wrapping and tossed it into my backpack. "How much longer until we meet Celebi?" I questioned, hoping it wasn't far, since I was starting to get eager about meeting Celebi and experiencing Time Travel.

Grovyle glanced at the sky and pointed at the sun, then gradually lowered his arm down towards the horizon. I snuck a peek at my wristwatch and saw that it was just about two in the afternoon, and nightfall in late summer usually came around eight-thirty or nine. "A while, huh..." I sighed, and grinned nervously when Grovyle gave me a warning look. "Yeah, yeah, no complaining. I get it." His eyes narrowed, and he smirked a bit, but turned without doing anything more. I hurried up beside Grovyle so I would be walking beside him instead of trailing behind. I looked down at his right arm and touched it lightly with my left. "How's your injury?" Grovyle glanced down at his arm and nodded once. "Good," I said, relieved, then waited a while before speaking again.

"You know..." I said, surprising myself at how calm I sounded, "if Dusknoir shows up again, I'll do more this time to help you. I probably won't be very good at fighting a Pokémon, but I want to help you." Grovyle stared up at me with wide yellow eyes, as if unsure of what to think. "If Dusknoir gets me, then you should get away. You know more about all of this than me, so you'll still be able to find the Time Gears." Still Grovyle gazed at me as we walked. "But I won't let Dusknoir kill me. If we get separated before we find Celebi, I'll go try and find her, and get to the past. After that we can look for each other while trying to find the Time Gears." I grinned, feeling unexpectedly confident, even as I thought about facing Dusknoir alone. "How's that sound?" Grovyle didn't react for a bit; then he nodded, a smile spreading across his face. "But...I'll try my best not to get separated. I don't want to be apart again. And we'll be together when we...disappear." Grovyle nodded firmly, though his eyes looked a little distant. "I almost never knew about you...but I'm really glad that you found me."

Grovyle was silent. I pulled the picture from my pocket and held it tightly, wondering if I'd get a vision, but minutes passed and nothing happened. With a sigh I put the picture away. "I can't control them," I muttered, a little annoyed. "Wish I could..." Grovyle caught my gaze, an astute glint entering its yellow eyes. "What's it for, anyway?" I sighed irritably. "I wish someone else had it," I grumbled, but immediately felt guilty for saying that. The visions were infuriating when all it took to set a one off was to do something as simple as open a door or shake someone's hand. I wouldn't want someone else to have to deal with them. "I wonder if anyone else gets visions like this, too, Grovyle," I mumbled distantly, then shook my head. "We're almost to the forest," I remarked as I saw the trees stretching out in front of me. "That's good. Soon we'll meet Celebi and get away from Dusknoir." Grovyle brightened and nodded, quickening his pace, and I did the same. So far I'd managed to keep up, and hoped I'd keep doing that. My injuries were feeling a little better, which meant I wouldn't have to slow Grovyle down as much anymore.

A couple hours later, Grovyle pushed his way through the trees at the edge of the forest, and I struggled to make my way through after him. I wanted to ask a lot more questions, mostly ones about Grovyle, but hesitated. It suddenly hit me that I should be watching out for Grovyle and listening in case Dusknoir showed up, or anyone or thing else thing might be dangerous. As I watched Grovyle, somehow I knew that we had to be getting close to Celebi. "Grovyle...where do we start looking for the Time Gears once we're in the past?" Grovyle glanced at me sharply, and I gulped. "Well, we can find out later. You'll probably ask Celebi, right?" He looked away from me, putting his attention back towards the task at hand. _I guess I'm nervous, _I thought._I can't help asking questions._ Grovyle glanced at the sky, then sniffed at the ground a bit, and continued on through the trees as he followed a slightly-worn path. It seemed we were on the right track.

At this point, all I could do was follow Grovyle, since I had no idea where Celebi was. The sun was starting to sink, I noticed as I glanced skyward hopefully, but it would be a while yet before it got dark. I wondered if Celebi was near, or if we were going to stop and rest soon, but Grovyle didn't seem intent on stopping. I glanced behind me and knew that we were probably still in danger of being caught. "Sorry for all the questions, but why do we have to go to the past to get the Time Gears? Don't they exist now?" I received a head shake in response. "No, huh..." I mused, crossing my arms in thought. Suddenly Grovyle stopped, his body stiffening, and I halted immediately. "What's wrong?" Just as the question slipped out of my mouth, I felt the ground start to quake and heard it, too. "Uh-oh." A particularly strong tremor jolted Grovyle to the ground, and caused me to stumble backward into a nearby tree. I caught myself with both hands, and tried to keep myself steady, but that didn't seem to be helping. I suddenly felt even unsteadier on my legs, and shook my head a couple times as I leaned on the tree, but the shakiness still didn't go away. Then a sound crackled in my ears; a groaning, creaking noise, followed by a splintering of something that sounded like wood. I glanced up at the tree when the noise stopped and then around at the others in the forest, but they seemed fine. Suddenly I glanced up in alarm and knew what was going to happen. Grovyle was standing right where the tree was going to fall...but any one of the trees could fall. I couldn't tell which one. It was better to just get out of here.

Without thinking I rushed Grovyle and hugged him around the middle, then held him over my shoulder and ran ahead as fast as I could. I heard Grovyle give a cry of protest, and I could just imagine his bewildered and probably annoyed expression. "A tree is going to fall!" I exclaimed, and I hoped that I was doing the right thing. It was probably the tree that I'd touched that was going to fall, but others could, too. The tremors began to die down as I ran, and I began to run a little straighter and faster because of it. With relief I spied a clearing up ahead and sprinted for it. Just as I was about to reach it, I heard the same creaking, groaning noise that had been in the vision, and managed not to look back as it grew louder. Speeding into the clearing, I finally glanced back and saw a tree far behind us toppling to the ground. It seemed like the one Grovyle had been by, but I couldn't tell. Without warning my foot caught on something, and I stumbled, but managed to set Grovyle down. I braced myself to fall but felt a tug on my shirt and saw that Grovyle had grabbed hold of it with both paws. I planted my feet and was able to catch my balance. Panting heavily from the sudden dash and from the shock of the quake, I gasped, "I heard something...this time...instead of...seeing." Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm down and lowered my head in relief, then stood up and grinned awkwardly at Grovyle. "Are you okay?" He nodded and pointed to me, his yellow eyes questioning. "I'm fine. Just...startled. I don't think I've had a vision that was just sound before." Grovyle crossed his arms and began tapping a foot. I rubbed the back of my neck uncomfortably. "We should go. More trees could fall." Grovyle shook his head and knelt on the ground, scratched away some tufts of grass, and began to write when there was enough bare dirt visible. I moved closer and knelt beside Grovyle, trying to envision the footprints on the pages of my notebook instead of looking at it.

_You saved me._

"Yeah, of course!" I exclaimed once I'd mostly translated the footprints; I wouldn't have exactly passed a footprint writing test. Without my notes, I'd just filled in the blanks. Grovyle met my eyes steadily and I let out a breath. "We're friends, so whatever little time we have left, I'll stick with you and help." Grovyle looked encouraged, I thought, but he turned quickly so I couldn't catch what else might have been in his expression. "Let's eat something, Grovyle, and then go. Sound ok?" I rifled through my backpack and got a handful of Oran berries for Grovyle. He took them and tossed one into his mouth, then looked at me as I pulled out a water bottle and slipped my arms back through the backpack straps. "I'm not hungry now," I explained with a shrug; truthfully though my stomach was suddenly hurting too much for me to think about eating. "You thirsty?" Grovyle shook his head and walked on ahead, leaving me to follow. I took a long drink from the water bottle and had to force myself to put the cap back on after I'd drunk half of the water. We had enough water if I was careful, I thought, putting the bottle into the mesh holder on my backpack. I'd never been this thirsty, and it wasn't all that hot out. The day had been mostly overcast, and the clouds were getting a bit darker, though the sun had been visible a little while ago. Maybe it would start raining soon.

"Hey, Grovyle...there have been more earthquakes lately," I stated, and felt a rush of relief when the Pokémon nodded, an understanding look in his eyes. I was starting to learn that, despite the fact that Grovyle's body language usually suggested otherwise, he seemed to like it when I asked questions. It was a nice change from how my questions were normally reacted to. Whenever I brought the earthquakes up to my mother, she would usually fall into a bad mood and not talk to me for the rest of the day, and sometimes even for a few days. My father often calmed her down, and would console me and advise me not to mention the visions again (though I just couldn't help it sometimes). But after my father talked to my mother, she would usually seem to feel better and would talk to me again. Grovyle's yellow eyes always seemed to be lit up, a sign that he was listening, I knew now. His attentiveness was probably because of Dusknoir. Grovyle was always paying attention, always listening and looking interested, and it seemed that he knew everything that was going on. But somehow, even if Dusknoir had never come into the picture, I think Grovyle still would have been a focused Pokémon. I probably hadn't needed to save him from the tree at all, since he had sensed the earthquake before me, but I didn't regret that I had.

"Are they happening more often because time getting out of control?" Grovyle gave a little murmur and nodded his head. "You know...my mother never wanted to hear about the earthquakes, because they were usually connected to my visions..." I shook my head and felt my hands curl into fists. "And she never liked hearing about them. It was hard for her, and for my father, I know...but I'm really the one who had to deal with them. I had to deal with tests, and with people treating me like I was...dangerous or scary." With a deep sigh, I uncurled my fists. "If I could use the visions to help people, then maybe they wouldn't be afraid of me." I smiled, liking the sound of my imagined future. "I'd just always be the one that was different, but I wouldn't be a bad person." Grovyle straightened his back and gave me a confident smirk and nod as we walked side by side. I smiled and my chest felt a little lighter. A couple hours later, I felt like we had to be reaching the middle of the forest, and I glanced around eagerly when Grovyle came to a halt. He motioned towards me and I followed him through a final cluster of trees and into a clearing. I stopped, my breath catching in my throat. A mist was hanging low over the clearing, and in the fading light of the sunset, the mist was tinted a dusty purple.

The sight brought me back to a day a few years ago in the winter when my friends, their Pokemon and I had been finishing off a snowball fight. It had been Sam, her Eevee, nicknamed Wisp, and me against Brandon and his Pachirisu, Cloud and Sam's Meowth, Gold. Brandon had been short one team member, since Fire Pokémon didn't cope well with the cold, so Gold had agreed to be on the enemy team. Brandon's little Torchic, Cinder, had stayed inside, something I'd wondered about but the little guy hadn't seemed too broken up over being left out. According to Brandon, Cinder liked staying inside during the winter and drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies that his parents made. The snowball fight had been really heated, but eventually we'd declared it to be a draw, though to this day Sam loved claiming that Brandon had actually lost. Our group had been heading inside to warm up when Brandon had stopped us. We'd played until the sun had started to go down, and since that day had been particularly cloudy and snowy, the sun had a lot of weather conditions to shine through. The effect had been something that I'd never forgotten, because of my friends and the fun we'd had, and because of how the scenery around us had looked for a while.

The sun filtering through the clouds and snow had turned everything around it a soft purple. Sam, Brendan, Wisp, Cloud, Gold and me had stared as much as we could without looking right into the sun. Eventually it became too dark and cold for us to stay outside, so we'd rushed into Brandon's house before Cinder could finish off all the hot chocolate and cookies. The fire Pokémon had a big appetite, just like Brandon, though Sam and I could never get him to admit it.

That memory helped me look forward now, even though I wouldn't see my friends or their Pokémon again. I watched quietly as Grovyle stepped into the clearing and glanced around, first into the trees, and then at the sky for something. Carefully I stepped up beside him and mirrored what he was doing, but even though I guessed that Celebi was supposed to be here, I didn't know where to look or what to do. Grovyle gave a quiet call into the misty air and waited, so I walked over towards a towering tree and leaned up against it with a tired sigh. Grovyle strolled towards me, then stopped and smiled in amusement.

"What is it?" He pointed behind me, and I twisted around to the right and jumped in alarm. A small, pink Pokémon was fluttering right beside me, two little antennae on its head twitching as it watched quietly. "Celebi?" I ventured cautiously, and the Pokémon's mouth opened as a chittering laugh issued forth. I studied Celebi quickly and noted her rounded head that tapered off to a point at the top. She was light pink in most places, but the pointed top of her head was a darker pink, as well as her midsection and below. Her wings were small and rounded, dyed pink and purple as the sunset's light shone through them. I stood and reached my right hand out to her, and she grasped my pointer finger in both of her tiny hands. Happiness seemed to dance in her vivid yellow-green orbs. I glanced at Grovyle, who now looked a little disgruntled, and then back at Celebi. She giggled, did a little twirl in midair, and fluttered off as the spin ended. I watched her pull something from the knothole of a tree, and then fluttered quickly back. When she offered the object she held towards me, I curiously put out my hands and watched the object as she placed it in my palms. I studied the small thing, and noticed it seemed to be a broken part of something. It was light blue, and gave me a faint sense of remembering, but it was too broken for me to guess at what it had once been part of. Looking up, I saw Grovyle studying me intently; he was close now, and I could see in his eyes that he was anticipating something. Catching Celebi's eye, I noticed she had the same expression, too, but wasn't sure what I was supposed to be saying or doing.

Then, as sudden as a lightning flash, a wave of dizziness overtook me and I watched the forest floor rush up to meet me as I collapsed, the blue fragment still clutched in my hands.

What happened next was more like a dream, but because of the many visions I'd had I knew I was now having another. Somehow, all the others hadn't seemed this vivid, even the one about Temporal Tower.

Countless landscapes were floating past me, and I only managed to catch snatches of certain ones: a pristine lake sat on top of a vast green plateau while a bright, multi-colored geyser of water spouted high into the air; a damp underground lake with stalactites and stalagmites jutting from every inch of the ceiling and floor; a bright underground cavern with a kaleidoscope of crystals embedded in every inch of the walls; a lone, untouched mossy clearing in a forest drizzled with rain, and finally, another cavern with sharp rock formations glowing a bright yellow-gold. The locations were all different places, with just one thing in common...all of those locations had a small but steadily glowing gear-like object at their heart. _What are those? _I heard myself wonder in awe. The places where the gear objects rested were amazing to look at—I wanted to learn more about them if I could—but the objects themselves...they had their own strange enigma. I gazed at them, but the objects faded away into blackness.

My hands clenched around the broken object as I slowly came awake and pushed myself to my knees. I'd been asleep for a long time, I noticed drowsily. The forest around me was dark, and I could barely see my hands, but as I gazed into my palms I suddenly knew what the fragment Celebi had given me had been a part of—a Time Gear, the very ones that Celebi was going to help Grovyle and I go back in time to find. I clenched the Time Gear fragment and knew that Grovyle needed to go back in time to find the Time Gears because the present time gears had been destroyed somehow. When I stood up and got my balance a little pink blur shot across my vision, then returned to hover in front of my face. I took a breath, still a little overwhelmed by the vision. "Celebi, I saw the Time Gears. I saw where they are." She nodded seriously, her cheery smile fading to a thin line. Grovyle marched up, his face grimly set in determination.

Quickly pulling out my notebook, I began to write the places where the Time Gears had been, making up names for them as I did. _Geyser Lake, Underground Lake, Crystal Cavern, Forest Clearing, Limestone Cavern. _I faltered suddenly, looking up at Grovyle. "I saw where the Time Gears are, but how do we find them? I've never been to any of those places." Celebi and Grovyle glanced at each other, looking confused, and I noticed Celebi looked a little worried. "But...I think that we'll be able to find them," I told them, wondering if that was what had bothered them. "Maybe my visions will help." Celebi tilted her head at Grovyle, who sighed a bit before glancing at me. "So, are we going to Time Travel now?" Grovyle reached for my notebook, and I passed it to him, along with the pen. He took it in his right paw—were both were right-handed, I noticed—and wrote down some footprints after flipping to a blank page. When Grovyle finished writing, I took the notebook and studied it closely. Grovyle's writing with a pen was a little less neat than when he wrote in the dirt, but it was still good. Flipping back and forth between Grovyle's sentence and my translation notes, I finally got the meaning.

_Celebi can't send us to the past just on her own. She has to use the Passage of Time._

"What's that?" I asked immediately, curious, and Grovyle took the notebook and wrote a quick explanation.

_Celebi Time Travels short distances on her own, but the Passage of Time will help send us back a lot farther._

"So, that's our next destination then, right?" Grovyle and Celebi smiled, and I felt a little spurt of determination. "Then let's go. We're almost there. I'm kind of excited to see what the past is like." Celebi tittered a little, holding her hands to her mouth, and Grovyle seemed to shrug and roll his eyes. "Who's leading?" Celebi raised her hands, then glanced at Grovyle and hovered over towards him with a mischievous smile. "Yeah, you both lead. I have no clue where to go anyway." Before we started walking I got some berries for Grovyle and Celebi out of my backpack. "Let's eat something on the way." Dividing up the Oran berries, I held out my hands to the two, and they took them with grateful nods. I reluctantly took a drink from my water bottle, still not wanting food because of my aching stomach. A couple seconds later my stomach growled, and I decided to eat another granola bar despite not having much of an appetite. I was obviously hungry. While I ate I asked if Celebi and Grovyle wanted some water, but they shook their heads. I guess they liked getting water other places. Grovyle had reluctantly drunk from the bottle once, and it wasn't hard to see that he didn't like it. The water tasted fine to me, but maybe it had tasted strange to Grovyle.

Since we couldn't stop to write out questions and answers, I tried to ask Celebi and Grovyle yes-or-no questions. "Have you known about for the Time Gears for a while?" The two Pokémon my eyes and dipped their heads in unison. I lifted my right hand and looked at the blue fragment that had once been a Time Gear, then slipped it into the pocket that held the picture of me and Grovyle, my heart beating a little quicker as I thought about going to the past and finding the Time Gears.

Along the way through the dark forest, it was a little hard finding my way, even though Grovyle and Celebi were leading. Their eyes were probably better than mine in the dark, but when I detected light shining from above I glanced up and saw that the moon had risen. It was a first-quarter moon right now; I could tell that it was getting bigger from right to left, and it was glowing a pale yellow-orange, helping me see in the dark a little better. Some time later, we exited the trees, and I felt the ground start to angle up in a slight incline. In the distance I could make out a large hill, and I wondered what it would look like on the other side, but a short time later Grovyle and Celebi came to a halt in the shadow of the hill. Grovyle reclined against a tree, one of the few ones located outside of the forest, while Celebi fluttered up into the branches and rested in one of the branches. I approached the tree and gazed up at her; she was staring out across the horizon and looked to be in deep concentration. Yawning a little, I sat cross-legged next to Grovyle, then rummaged in my backpack for the tin of dried fruit. My stomach was feeling a lot better, though it still hurt enough to be a little annoying. I withdrew my notebook and flipped it open, then studied the footprint writing as I munched on a banana chip. Grovyle leaned over, and seemed to be sniffing at me. I smiled over at him and held out the tin; after a pause, Grovyle reached in and came away with a medium-sized handful of raisins and banana chips. As we ate, I took a look at the footprints in my notebook, and was a bit startled when Grovyle pulled it from my hands and started writing writing with the pen. When he finished, my eyes widened at what he'd left on the page.

_I've known about the Time Gear locations for a long time...and so have you, Gale. But maybe you were too young to remember. _Grovyle's expression was slightly perplexed. Suddenly the concerned expressions he and Celebi had exchanged earlier made sense; they might have been wondering why I didn't remember.

"So...you mean...you and I looked for them together?" Grovyle nodded insistently. "It must have been before I moved...and that means some of the Time Gears are in Hoenn." I sighed, but felt impressed that Grovyle's memory was that good. "You remember, so that means we'll definitely find them." Grovyle stood up and returned the notebook to me, and I dropped it into my backpack and rose to my feet, fitting my arms through the backpack straps. Celebi's tittering laugh floated down to us, and we glanced up to see her floating down from the tree, and as she reached us she did a playful little twirl. "Ready to go, Celebi?" I asked with a laugh, and she bobbed her head eagerly. Grovyle tugged on my shirt and jerked his head towards the hill behind him. "I'm coming," I told him, and Celebi crossed her arms and sighed out something I couldn't understand. Grovyle turned back and seemed to give Celebi a sharp response. But I caught a slight grin on his face as he turned back.

I snuck a sideways glance at Celebi, then jogged ahead when she started flying after Grovyle. Despite her sigh, there was a faint smile on her face as she watched Grovyle. "What was that about?" I asked curiously. Celebi turned her face quickly away, and I crossed my arms, wondering what they'd said to each other. They could understand me with no problem, and I wanted badly to understand their speech, but the footprint writing was as close as we were going to get to communicating with each other. I wondered if any other humans knew about the footprint writing; if they did, then it would be a good way to talk to Pokémon. If anyone knew about it, they were probably a researcher, since there were lots of them trying to invent something that would let people talk to Pokémon. Judging from the stories on the news, though, there still hadn't been much of a Pokémon communication breakthrough. But if there ever was, then I'd definitely wanted to be a part of it.

My parents had jobs where they were around Pokémon daily-my mother worked at the center and my father at the Nacrene Museum-and even though they weren't too interested in keeping Pokémon, I think because of them I wanted to be a Pokémon researcher someday, one that helped raise Pokémon as well as study their behavior, and maybe I'd even learn to take care of them if they got sick or hurt. I had realized that I'd like treating them because of the way I'd taken care of Grovyle's injury earlier.

I had some experience with looking after Pokémon. I'd house-sat for my friends a couple times before when they and their parents had been away, and that meant taking care of their Pokémon, too. I'd taken them over to my house, sometimes, but mostly my friends and their families had been alright with me staying at their houses temporarily to take care of everything. I'd even gotten paid a bit for it, and that had been the majority of my job experience over the years. For a short time this summer I'd made pretty good money working at a Pokémon salon, but had quit a couple weeks ago since school would start soon, but my big reason for quitting had been because I'd had enough of getting scratched up by Pokémon that hated water—Skitty, Meowth, Delcatty, Persian and Glameow mostly. Those Pokémon were alright, though, and I liked taking care of and playing with Sam's Meowth a lot, but don't even get me started on Purugly. That Pokémon was usually as mean as it was unattractive, and while trying to give any Purugly a bath, I'd gotten scratched, bitten and generally beaten up more times than I cared to count. I'd also gotten chewed out by a couple of customers who'd wanted me to give their ground or fire Pokémon a bath. Some fire Pokémon could swim and didn't mind water, but others-like Charmander-couldn't get in water at all. Some ground Pokémon were the same way, but avoided water a big chunk of the time. I had tried to explain patiently why I couldn't do what the customers wanted, and eventually they had understood. They'd been first-time trainers, and I was glad I hadn't gotten annoyed back at them, because had I been a trainer I probably would have slipped up like that.

My parents knew nothing about it, but I almost had enough money saved up from that summer job to adopt a Pokémon. Instead of going out to catch one, which was something mostly trainers or breeders did, I wanted to get one that needed a home. I wasn't interested in battling with Pokémon, but I did want to keep one, and there were lots of them in Nacrene City that needed homes. There was a business in the city that caught Pokémon that wandered into town and lived there. Sometimes they got into peoples' houses and caused a lot of trouble. After they were caught, some Pokémon would become tame, and from there they were adopted. If a Pokémon remained wild, though, the people at the rescue center would take them back into the place they'd come from, but far from the city so they wouldn't find their way back. Back in Hoenn, I remember learning about Fortree City, a place where the people lived in tree houses alongside wild Pokémon. They were able to live with them without any problem, but in a place like Nacrene City the people were pretty separate from wild Pokémon.

If my parents were against me keeping a Pokémon, I'd give them a convincing argument that I'd been working on, and I was pretty confident that they'd go for it. But if that didn't work I would have shoved the recently-discovered picture of my younger self holding the pre-evolved Grovyle in their faces. That had been a brief idea, though, because it was looking less and less likely that would happen. Soon I wouldn't even exist.

I couldn't help giving a little sigh as I trudged up the hill, and Celebi glanced back at me sharply. I smiled quickly, trying to hide it. "I'm just a little out of breath," I told her, but it was obvious by the way she pursed her lips that she wasn't buying it. "Celebi..." I began in an undertone, glancing at Grovyle, who was a fair distance ahead and had almost crested the hill by now, "don't tell him, because it's not a big deal...not when we have something this important to do...but I've been thinking a lot about having to disappear." Celebi hovered closer and I held out my arms; she nestled in them and I stroked the top of her head a couple times, then stopped in case she didn't like it. Most Pokémon seemed to like being petted but I wasn't sure about how Celebi would feel. The little Pokémon looked up at me with her big yellow-green eyes and smiled, nodding once, so I gently resumed stroking her head again, and she seemed to be happy. Had she been a Meowth she would have been purring. "It'll be fine. I'll keep going, no matter what happens. I've only just met Grovyle after ten years, Celebi, and I'm not going to leave him now." I still was feeling uneasy about causing the end of everyone that lived in Unova...but I doubted they'd want to live in a frozen world. I wouldn't, and I knew that my friends definitely wouldn't. They were interested in new things, always eager for things to change, and managed to always have a good time despite their troubles. If the planet was paralyzed, they would probably do anything they could to make time go forward again.

Celebi bumped her head into my chest, then patted my bandaged right arm gently. The way she'd nudged me just now reminded of the way Sam's Meowth would gently head-butt me when he was happy. I'd read in one of Brandon's books that when most Pokémon headbutted someone, it meant they liked that person. I guess I'd spent enough time with Meowth to get headbutted, and apparently Celebi, even though I'd only known her a short time. Considering the time we had left, though, I wondered if maybe it was enough.

I looked up and saw Grovyle had planted his feet on the top of the hill and was gazing down the hill at us. The yellow-orange half-moon was directly behind him, and the light framed his body and made him look like his body was glowing. For a moment, it looked like tiny orbs of light were lifting off his body, but I shook my head and knew that it was probably motes of dust lit up by the moonlight. I felt Celebi flutter free of my arms and watched her start flying up the hill before I started jogging up rushing up the side of the hill. I took a couple breaths after my dash upward, then looked down at the plateau that stretched down from the hillside. The grassy expanse was lit by the moon above and I could see that the grass changed to a rocky landscape about halfway out. "Almost there," I said quietly. The three of us stood quietly for a moment, looking into each other's eyes, and together we nodded before setting off down the hill towards the plateau. There wasn't much to say at this point. Dusknoir was still after us, and could be anywhere. He had been held up in Striaton City, but even with the lead Grovyle and I had gotten on him, I guessed that he wasn't too far behind. I thought of the people he'd attacked and felt a clenching of sympathy in my stomach, and hoped fervently that they were alright. Dusknoir had been looking for me, and had hurt those people in Striaton City in the process.

I still didn't know what to make of Time Travel, of the Time Gears, or of the planet's paralysis, but I was planning to learn more from Grovyle once we were in the past. I trusted him, and Celebi, since they were the only ones I could trust at this point. Again, I thought of how Dusknoir's attack on the both of us had first spurred me into believing that something bigger than I thought was going on. I stumbled a little on the uneven ground and broke out of my thoughts. The grassy plateau was gradually becoming more rocky and dangerous. I tried to make my way carefully through, constantly eyeing the ground to avoid losing my footing or tripping on large rocks that were in the way. Grovyle's pace suddenly quickened and Celebi started flapping her see-through wings harder. I was startled by their sudden dash, but began running harder to catch up, jumping over rocks or dodging around them to avoid falling. A couple times I thought I was falling behind but I managed to keep up somehow. Looking into the distance, I squinted as my eyes caught sight of something in the distance. It was glowing a bright, neon blue and as the three of us gradually neared it, I saw that an archway of dancing blue light was waiting before a sheer cliff face.

"So is this...the Passage...of Time?" I panted after getting a bit of my breath back. Grovyle and Celebi didn't respond; they were approaching the glowing archway, so I walked towards it too and came to a stop between them; Grovyle was on my left and Celebi was on my right. I watched silently as the small pink Pokémon flew up and hovered closer to the archway, raising both of her delicate arms towards it. A moment later, the flowing blue light glowed brighter, and a curtain of light flowed down from the archway, creating a glowing spiral that seemed to lead into the depths of the cliff. Celebi lowered her arms and turned in midair, gazing down, blue light from the Passage of Time reflected in her determined eyes. Grovyle pressed up against me, edging me towards the Passage of Time. I realized that I was hesitating, and felt my legs quaking slightly, so I gripped Grovyle's right paw and took a breath through my nose; Grovyle squeezed my hand tightly.

"Whatever happens," I told him, "we'll make it." I dimly heard Celebi speaking as the light from the portal intensified. Even if I'd been able to understand her speech, I don't think I would have been able to catch her words. But maybe they were only for Grovyle, I realized, intrigued. Grovyle and I moved forward as Celebi fluttered above the Passage of Time and hovered there. The light was even brighter up close, and I narrowed my eyes against it as we got closer. I turned my head to meet Grovyle's eyes, and saw him looking up at me. I nodded almost at the same instant he did, and we looked up to see Celebi waving down at us. We raised our arms to return the gesture, then took a step forward into the flowing curtain of light.

A powerful force caught hold of me and without warning I felt like I was falling through the air at a speed that made my skin tingle. There was no ground or sky around me; the only things my eyes could see were spears of white light penetrating a bright blue tunnel of light around me. A flash of green made me flinch, but I realized it was Grovyle falling beside me. I was still gripping his paw tightly, and I grit my teeth and held on with all my might as I felt Grovyle clenching his fingers even tighter around my hand. A sound like a thunderclap accompanied a blinding flash of light and I jolted in surprise, wondering if this was a part of the Time-Travel Process. As a powerful shock spasmed through my body, I let out a sharp gasp. Feeling Grovyle's body tense through our clasped paw and hand, I knew that he'd had the same sensation as me. When the shock came again, it was more powerful and sent waves of jolting pain through me.

"Shoot!" I yelled as my hand slipped and tore free of Grovyle's grasp, but I faced him and lunged, trying to grab his right paw again. I made it and got a good grip on him and brought my other arm around so I could grab his remaining paw. Grovyle's eyes were narrowed with concentration as he tightened his grip on my hands, but I saw that the attack—or whatever it had been—was making it hard for him to hold on. His body was shaking the same way I imagined mine was, since my body felt painful and weak. "Don't let go!" I yelled, and grunted as I heaved Grovyle towards me. A flash of darkness shot past us, and I was jostled violently; my hand slipped again. "No!" Grovyle yelled back at me and swiped for my hand. I ground my teeth and yanked Grovyle closer. "Just a little more...come on...!" Something in the corner of my eye made me turn my head and I gaped in fear, a cold trickle going down my spine when I saw a spiral of darkness slowly coming nearer. The way we were positioned, it would hit both of us, but a last-ditch thought flashed in my mind and I went with it. With all my strength I clutched Grovyle to my chest and hugged him tightly as I tried to shield him from the dark spiral that was heading for us. "Don't move," I grunted, trying to push my fear and panic away as I imagined the darkness hitting me. "Everything will be fine." I felt a cold, burning pain strike my back, and the sensation grew to a fiery sting that soon was burning through my entire body. It was the worst pain I'd ever felt, and I could hear myself screaming in reaction to it. Numbly I felt Grovyle shaking my shoulders and crying something but by the way my body felt leaden and my thoughts distant I knew that I couldn't hold on anymore.

The grip I had on Grovyle loosened and I felt him being yanked away by the force that had first pulled us deeper into the Passage of Time. I could barely hear Grovyle shouting, and dimly felt something snatching for my arms. With an effort, I forced my eyes open and saw Grovyle, but he was too far away for me to reach him. I tried to lift my arms and stretch my hands towards him, but I couldn't even twitch a finger. "I'm...sorry..." My words slurred and I could barely hear them. "I can't...reach..." I suddenly felt like I was falling even faster, and the sensation was painfully dizzying but I couldn't do anything to stop it. The last thing I heard before my eyes fell shut was a last cry from Grovyle. I tried to summon up the thing I'd told him we'd do if we got separated...I never thought we would be parted so violently like this, because of an attacker I couldn't see. I'd been expecting Dusknoir to attack Grovyle and me again. _Grovyle...where are you?_

A blast of white light cut through my eyelids, and I felt a powerful crash that battered my body heavily, and now instead of falling, I felt like I was sinking into cold depths. Even as I tried to make sense of what had happened, my feelings and thoughts started fading. Something buffeted me again and again, and each time, I felt colder and weaker, and the pain in my body was starting to fade. I didn't know when it would end, but it couldn't be long now.

I dimly felt my body dragging up against something, then desperately and instinctively pulled at it, and felt some of the coldness leaking away. I wasn't falling anymore, and it didn't feel like there was anything left to fight, so I let the exhaustion win. There was something I had that seemed important, and things in my head that I felt I should remember, but those thoughts were all too far away for me to catch. A tired thought surfaced in my dazed mind before I blacked out.

_What...happened..._

* * *

**So, there we have it. The heroes have Time Traveled, but as you know, something's gone wrong. I don't know if I went overboard with the descriptions in this chapter, but I had fun. It was good to try and explain things as descriptively as I could, especially the Time Gear and Passage of Time part. It was also fun writing hints in the story about Grovyle and Celebi. Those two are sweet. 3**

Next chapter will probably be the last of this story, and then I may go on to write about the main story. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a really good game, so I might not be able to stop myself from writing more about Gale, Grovyle, and the Guild Buddies.

**Anyway, almost there! Thank you for reading!**


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